Story Highlights

SOUTH BEND – Mike Davidson could hardly believe his ears — or his good fortune.

This was back in the spring of 2015, when nearly two full years had passed since Asmar Bilal last participated in track and field at Ben Davis.

Freshly signed to a football scholarship at Notre Dame, where the havoc-wreaking linebacker built himself into a four-star recruit and second-team MaxPreps All-America, Bilal saw Davidson in the hallway just before the start of practice and offered a surprising message.

“It’s amazing,” Davidson, coach of the school’s track and field program, says in a phone interview. “You don’t think of a linebacker as a high jumper, you know? He didn’t compete for us his junior year, but he said, ‘No, I’ll be out there for you, coach.’"

His 6-2 frame then carrying close to 200 pounds, Bilal easily could have focused on throwing the discus, which he probably did well enough to reach the state meet if that had been his sole event. Instead, Bilal said he wanted to join his buddy Jordan Wilkerson in the high jump.

Wilkerson, a year younger in school and now a decathlete at Illinois State, spread perhaps 175 pounds across his 6-foot frame. For Bilal to clear the bar with his muscular body, it would require near-perfect form.

“Asmar comes out and says, ‘I really want to high jump. I think I can still high jump,’ “ Davidson says.

The coach’s reply: “Well, let me see. Show me you can still do it.”

Moments later, with Wilkerson and the rest of the jumpers looking on in disbelief, Bilal showed off his freakish athletic ability.

“He steps up, and he hasn’t forgotten anything,” Davidson says. “He’s such a natural athlete, he takes off properly and he jumps and he arches through and he does it really well. I’m like, ‘Ah, yeah, we can go with this high-jump thing.’"

Bilal went on to clear 6 feet, 4 inches at the regional meet, tying Wilkerson’s best jump to qualify for the state meet in Bloomington. Bilal fouled out at states, but his achievement in his second sport still causes Davidson to marvel.

***

What made it work for Bilal? Humility, a willingness to accept coaching and a relentless desire to improve each day.

Those same traits have helped the redshirt senior climb the depth chart for the fifth-ranked Fighting Irish, who have given him five starts at rover through their first six games. He was at his best on Sept. 29 in a 38-17 demolition of No. 7 Stanford, breaking up passes and outclassing the Cardinal’s talented stable of tight ends.

“Asmar flipped the switch,” junior cornerback Troy Pride Jr. says. “This is his time to go. He’s been poised. He’s always been a quiet guy that always does his job.”

Stanford wide receiver Trenton Irwin is stopped by Notre Dame safety Jalen Elliott (21) and linebacker Asmar Bilal during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018, in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)(Photo11: Carlos Osorio, AP)

From the minute Pride stepped on campus, he remembered gravitating toward Bilal and being impressed by his attention to detail.

“I was like, ‘Man, this dude knows the defense; he knows what he’s doing all the time,’ “ Pride says. “I wanted to take that mindset a little bit from him. Playing well, doing your job, knowing what you’re supposed to do. That’s what Asmar can do, and you see it. Asmar’s really picked his game up.”

Irish coach Brian Kelly has offered praise for Bilal’s play at several points this season, most notably after the Stanford game, saying he was “great in coverage.” After redshirting as a freshman, playing mostly special teams as a sophomore and seeing 12 games off the bench as a junior, Bilal has taken over Drue Tranquill’s old spot at rover.

The biggest area of improvement, Kelly says, has been Bilal’s ability to recognize and diagnose plays.

“Those instincts sometimes require repetition — real, live repetition,” Kelly says. “The more he plays, he sees things better, and he is a gifted athlete. He had always been a little bit slower in reacting. He’s now closing that reaction time down with much more instinctive movements.”

Kelly even noted that perhaps Bilal, who had been taken off the field on third down earlier this season, should have been allowed to cover tight ends sooner. Asked about that compliment, Bilal tosses his head back and laughs.

“He mentioned that to me, but nothing other than that,” Bilal says. “That’s nice of him to say.”

Bilal claimed a slew of honors during his high school football career, but the one he keeps in a prominent place in his boyhood home is the Mental Attitude Award.

“I’ve got that plaque up at home,” he says. “I don’t even know what it takes to win that. I guess I had a great mental attitude.”

Still does, by all accounts.

“I think a lot of that stuff remains the same,” Bilal says. “Mental toughness, being disciplined, a lot of that carries on. I think my foundation started off there. That helped me to just keep the tunnel vision.”

As he waited his turn and ultimately learned a new position, Bilal once more learned the value of patience. That same trait enabled him to blossom after having to wait until his junior year to start for Mike Kirschner’s football power at Ben Davis, which Bilal helped lead to the Class 6A state title as a senior.

“I think that’s one of the focuses,” he says. “One play at a time, one step at a time. That’s one of the things with patience: You have to trust the process to receive what you want at the end.”

“I think I have great emotional control,” he says. “I’m just kind of chill. That’s kind of like my optimal zone. I don’t really get too high or get down. It’s just being consistent and the same throughout.”

Back in the halls of Ben Davis, where Bilal once stopped Davidson and promised to be there for him and his resurgent track-and-field program, the pride flows freely for one of the most gifted athletes in Giants history.

Bilal’s old coaches and teachers see him on national television, starring for an Irish program that has designs on ending a 30-year national championship drought, and there are knowing nods and smiles in the break room.

“He’s a playmaker for the Irish now,” Davidson says. “He’s everywhere. You look up and see him knocking passes down, making some big tackles and coming off the edge. It’s exciting to see him have that success.”

Exciting for sure. Gratifying as well.

“When there’s a good guy that you really respect, and you see him having success,” Davidson says, “it makes you feel great.”